New hope for paranoid Londoners has come in the form of virtual reality tube ride developed by King's College London, which has sims-like passengers who breathe, look around and even gaze right at the user. It lacks the bodily smells, litter and bumps you'd normally experience on a journey, but it's probably best not to add any additional annoyances to those already feeling anxious and paranoid.

The VR train experience is helping psychologists get better insight into the paranoid brain, since they get to see first-hand, in a controlled environment, how people react to supposedly ambiguous situations. The simulator, in conjunction with counseling, may ultimately be used to treat people with paranoid thoughts.

Check out a video of the virtual tube along with plenty of quotes from paranoid V-tube passengers who are ready to finger their faux tube-mates for fiendishness, like,

"There's something dodgy about one guy. Like he was about to do something -- assault someone, plant a bomb, say something not nice to me, be aggressive."

It seems we now also know who is responding to all those new anti-terrorist ads.

Image courtesy of Adi Setiawan's Flickrstream